1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data communication apparatus, a data communication method, a data communication program, and a storage medium storing the program. In particular, the present invention relates to a data communication apparatus and a data communication method that can send input data to an input destination, as well as a data communication program and a storage medium storing the program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a multi-function peripheral (MFP) having a scanner function, a printer function, a network interface, a user interface, a file system, and so forth has been known (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-118711, for example). The MFP is capable of reading image data using the scanner function and sending the image data to a destination designated by using the user interface via a network by Internet facsimile, e-mail attachment, or the like. Also, when a user inputs a division code, an administrator password, and so forth using the user interface, the MFP authenticates the user by means of the input division code, administrator password, and so forth and moves to the ready state.
Also, a MFP has been proposed which authenticates a user by means of a user ID and enables the authenticated user to use an address book for his/her exclusive use in which telephone numbers of facsimile destinations are stored (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. H11-017862, for example).
However, in the MFP proposed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. H11-017862 mentioned above, when authenticated by means of a user ID, a sender can use an address book for his/her exclusive use in which telephone numbers of facsimile destinations are stored, but image data can be sent to every destination stored in the address book, and hence a recipient receives image data irrespective of whether he/she is willing to receive the image data from the sender.
For this reason, in the above conventional MFP, in the case where the amount of image data sent from the sender is very large, a recipient's network and storage device are overloaded, which may cause a failure to occur in the recipient's network depending on circumstances. Also, since the recipient receives image data irrespective of whether he/she is willing to receive the image data, the load on the recipient's storage device increases as the number of pieces of image data sent increases even if the data amounts are small. Further, there is a possibility that the recipient receives image data totally unrelated to him/her or malicious image data. In the case where image data is attached to an e-mail, the recipient can refer to a sender name, data size, subject, and so forth before receiving the image data attached to the e-mail and thus he/she can prescreen data to be received to some extent, but operations therefor are complicated. Further, since a recipient's mail server (POP server) receives image data attached to an e-mail, the mail server and the network are overloaded.